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Lamp holder on old English bikes??

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Lamp holder on old English bikes??

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Old 04-24-06, 11:08 PM
  #1  
mriley
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Lamp holder on old English bikes??

On my Raleigh Tourist (rad-brake roadster), on the quill just above the head tube is a piece of angled metal with a cross-shaped cutout facing forward. I have seen this on other English bikes and have assumed it was a holder for a headlight - but what kind of light? It would be good to have an authentic piece.
Anyone have any info on this?
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Old 04-25-06, 07:40 AM
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There's one on eBay at the moment. The reflector looks a bit manky around the edges, but this might be what you're looking for.

Good luck!

- Wil
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Old 04-25-06, 07:42 AM
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You can fit a (N)Ever-ready bike lamp (2x C cells) and some older dynamo lamps (eg Union).

I think I have some late-model plastic Ever Ready lamps kicking around. They were unreliable and ate batteries.
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Old 04-25-06, 09:18 PM
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I am wondering how they attach. Is there a projection on the rear of the lamp that fits into the slot in the holder? The links don't show the back fo the lamp (of course).
Thanks
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Old 04-25-06, 09:48 PM
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This is a Miller dynamo lamp... is this what you're talking about?
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Old 04-25-06, 11:32 PM
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If you're planning on using the headlamp to see where you're going in the dark, forget about either the Ever-Ready or the Miller; you could collect a jar of fireflies and get better results. Get an old torpedo-shaped Union lamp and dyno and put a halogen bulb in the lamp.
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Old 04-26-06, 08:49 PM
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My question was just about what type of lamp originally attached to these roadsters and how they fit in the holder. There's no doubt that the battery lamps would have been feeble - and I'm not planning to actually use them at night. I just want to know what was original.
No, I'm not referring to a dynamo lamp. Some Raleigh's has a hub dyno in the front wheel - again quite feeble, nothing like the modern Schimit or Shimano - but this particular Tourist did not have that feature.
Thanks
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Old 04-26-06, 09:22 PM
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I have a Raleigh with a lamp bracket that might be the one you describe. It uses the lamp shown in message #2. It's just a "tab 'A' into slot 'B'" proposition, i.e. I can life the lamp off the tab with little effort. The lamp itself was also made in Nottingham. I can't remember if it's Raleigh branded or if it has some other name.
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Old 04-27-06, 06:33 AM
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The bracket you have is, indeed, a tab. The cutouts are just decoration. There's a slot formed by a piece of metal or plastic in an elongated U shape on the back of the lamps that just slides over that bracket.
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Old 04-27-06, 10:11 PM
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Thanks. That's just what I wanted to know - that the slots are decorative and that the lamp just slips over the tab. Maybe I'll check out the one on ebay.
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